Mailpiece tracking through each stage of manufacturing and post processing up to and including delivery to an addressee has become a business requirement and in some instances, a legal requirement. For example, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002—‘Corporate and Auditing Accountability and Responsibility Act’, the HIPAA—Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act Of 1996 and the UDAP—Unfair and Deceptive Acts or Practices Act, all require data supporting the status of each processing step execution and in some cases proof of mailpiece delivery. Mailpiece item tracking from print through mailpiece manufacture is available with products such as the Bowe Bell+Howell Bowe One system. The creation and tracking of the delivery point barcode such as the USPS® Intelligent Mail® barcode (IMb) are accomplished by the Bowe Bell+Howell NetSort sorter control software.
However, the integration of mailpiece item data from a postage meter, by utilizing the information based barcode data (such as the USPS Information Based Indicia—IBI) included as part of the postage indicia, with the production and sorting processes have not been accomplished. The lack of integration creates a gap in the data collection for each mailpiece about the metering step. Collection of data available from a postage meter associated with indicium applied and integration of mailpiece production data with sorting data and association of this data with the IBI and the delivery point barcode (such as the USPS Intelligent Mail barcode—IMb) is not available. In addition, automatic recognition of a mailpiece and its accumulated item data by a mail sorter is not possible. Furthermore, there is no technique available for a sorter to use the IBI for job setup and mailpiece item data tracking to the correct mailing report or client report. Remote access to mailpiece data is not available by scanning the IBI or IMb.
Hence a need exists for the collection of indicia related data and integration of mailpiece production data with sorting data and the association of this data with the IBI and IMb to be accomplished. Further the use of the IBI to uniquely identify each mailpiece to the sorter control system is required.